Jellyfish
by LemonStar
Summary: ..Daryl/Beth.. From the "House Call" series. Abby wished that Hunter would stop caring what people said about her. For the most part, Abby had stopped caring a long time ago.
1. Abby

**Many have been asking for a story about the Dixon kids when they're a little older and I was inspired to write something for it. This is just going to be a few parts long. Maybe five and it will switch POVs around. I hope you enjoy this first chapter!**

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…

It all started with, oddly enough, jellyfish.

It was a simple question in Abby's biology class. What is your favorite animal and whatever it is, write a two page – single-spaced – report on that animal over the weekend, due that next Monday. And the teacher went around the room and had each student tell the rest of the class what their favorite animal was in case there was more than one writing about the same one.

Abby Dixon never talked in class – even if she knew the answer to whatever question the teacher asked – and all of her teachers knew that. Some had still called on her, wanting to encourage her, but others respected her desire to be silent. Abby wore her hearing aids during school hours but she hated the way she sounded when she talked. Her words were slow and slightly loud so she'd be able to hear herself and she had heard more than one of her classmates snicker behind their hands when she spoke.

She watched as the question slowly made its way up each row of desks, each student answering, laughing when Toby Grist answered with "Blue-Footed Booby" but the teacher, Ms. Brandt, shushed them, and they all knew Toby had said that just so he'd be able to say boob while in class. Abby sat in the last row, closest to the wall of windows in the room, and she listened as everyone gave their answer, none giving the answer that Abby was going to.

And when it came to be her turn, Ms. Brandt smiled at her and they all waited. "And what's your favorite animal, Abby? What will you be writing about?" She asked.

Abby licked her lips, feeling how suddenly dry they were, and she tried to swallow the matching dryness that itched the back of her throat.

"Jellyfish," she answered, staring down at her desk as she did so.

"What an interesting choice, Abby," Ms. Brandt said and Abby lifted her eyes to see that the teacher was smiling – warm and genuine. "Do you know-" Ms. Brandt looked to the rest of the class. "-that the jellyfish doesn't have a heart, bones or even a brain?"

"Sounds like Abby," Max Moraine spoke up and the rest of the class began laughing.

Abby stared down at her desk and swallowed again, the itching in her throat growing worse, and her stomach tightened into such a painful knot, she wanted to cross her arms over it and hug it in an attempt to make it better.

Ms. Brandt frowned and without a word, she pointed towards the door, and with a heavy sigh, Max stood up from his desk and left the room. "Alright, everyone. Turn to chapter three and begin reading quietly to yourselves. I'll be right back."

And after making sure that everyone was turning open their textbooks, she turned and followed Max out of the room, closing the door behind them. Abby immediately reached up and turned her hearing aids off so she wouldn't have to hear any of them.

She stared down at the words in front of her though she really wasn't reading any of them. She was used to the kids in her classroom laughing at her. And it wasn't just because she was almost completely deaf though that certainly had to do with it. They just thought she was weird. She wore dresses every day, and her blonde hair was always down and wild and it looked as if she never brushed it – though she did. In the warm months, she ran through the woods and fields without shoes – and if it was warm enough, she usually walked home from school without shoes on, too – and though it was a small town and everyone knew where the Dixon family lived, they all liked to say that she was just some feral girl who lived in the woods.

She was weird. Different. Slightly flawed. And they all didn't like her because of it.

Their town was small and there was one school that housed all of the grades – kindergarten through twelfth – in a two-story old brick building. Each grade was like in a one-room schoolhouse all on their own. They were always together and had one teacher to teach them all of the subjects. Abby had been with these classmates since they all started school years earlier and she knew they didn't like her. She didn't have any friends – not that she was looking to have any. She had always liked being on her own and she was envious of her oldest brother, Luke. He was twenty now and had gone off to Atlanta to go to art school and didn't have to go to this school every day.

She was only thirteen and had a few more years of having to endure before she could go off, too – even though, deep down, she knew that she really didn't want to leave at all.

The bell couldn't ring soon enough, ending school for the day, and her aids were off so she didn't hear it but she saw everyone else standing up, gathering their things, and looking to the clock, she was that it was three o'clock. Time to go.

She was the last to leave, hugging her books to her chest, and Ms. Brandt was sitting behind her desk, going through a stack of papers.

"Have a wonderful weekend, Abby," Ms. Brandt smiled at her and even though her hair was hanging in her face and her aids were off, Abby could see Ms. Brandt's lips and she could read them. She gave the pretty, kind teacher a small smile before leaving the classroom, stepping in the hallway crowded with other students, all running and shouting, eager to be out of school for the next two days.

She was glad she had her aids turned off.

As she walked towards the stairs, Abby caught sight of Ray Dixon, her dad's cousin and the janitor for the school, mopping at the floor, near Ms. Brandt's open door. Ray saw her and grinned and Abby smiled in return. She was quiet and her dad had taught her how to be observant at a young age when her lessons on tracking in the woods began. She saw things she knew that most other people didn't and she knew that Ray and Ms. Brandt liked each other and after school each day, he usually went to talk with her.

Stopping at her locker to drop off a few of her books, she kept her science book to take home with her and a book of Emily Dickenson poems that she always had with her. Sometimes, she felt no one in this world understood her except Emily Dickenson. And maybe her mom and dad.

As she stepped onto the front steps leading up into the school, she turned her aids back on. Her parents always wanted her to put them back on whenever she was walking somewhere. Safer that way, her dad said. Both for traffic and if someone was coming. Where they lived was relatively safe. Small and somewhat isolated and sometimes, it felt like the little town was alone in the whole world but anything could happen anywhere and Abby was usually off on her own and her parents couldn't be too safe.

It was September, summer still clinging in the air, and Abby slipped off her shoes before walking down the steps and cutting across the school's front lawn, feeling the warm grass beneath her as she walked.

She heard a few shouts and she saw kids running off to the side of the building and she couldn't help but look curiously towards the circle growing with kids of all ages, looking at whatever was in the center of the circle, some shouting, others cheering or laughing.

Abby couldn't care less and she continued walking. But then she heard someone shout "Hunter!" and she stopped, heading right for the circle. And when she saw what was going on, she wasn't entirely surprised, she realized. Hunter Dixon might have been sixteen-years-old but he had no problem approaching a thirteen-year-old and scaring the living daylights out of them, which was what it appeared he was doing.

Abby stood on her toes, trying to look over the shoulders of those in front of her.

And she wasn't surprised to see that Hunter was talking with Max Moraine, the boy's bottom lip already bloody and bruised. She had no idea how he had heard of what Max had said about her in class today but Hunter always had ways, Abby knew. It was a little surprising to her that any of her classmates ever said anything about her with Hunter as her older brother. He had always been her protector – ever since they were little kids – and if someone even looked at Abby the wrong way, they had to answer to Hunter.

Abby wished that Hunter would stop caring what people said about her. For the most part, Abby had stopped caring a long time ago.

Using her elbows, she pushed her way through the crowd of kids and strode right to Hunter. Without a word, she grabbed his arm and began tugging him away. Hunter got in trouble enough – both in school and with mom and dad – and as Hunter protected her, Abby did her best to look out for him and keep out of as much trouble as she could.

"Should have let me finish it, Abs," Hunter said as they began walking home.

Abby shook her head. "Mom and dad will kill you. And he's thirteen," she signed to him.

Hunter shrugged, his turn to not care less, and Abby knew that he didn't.

…

Daryl Dixon used to work at Dale's Auto Garage in town but he quit a few years ago after Dale retired and had his nephew took over. Daryl and the nephew didn't see eye-to-eye on certain things and Daryl wound up quitting after years of working there.

People in town thought he should open up his garage but the loans and getting the right equipment were too expensive so Daryl put most of his focus on his wood-working business, which seemed to grow each year. He still did random oil changes and engine work in the garage for family friends who wanted no one but Daryl Dixon working on their car, but for the most part, he was a full-time hunter and carpenter now.

When Abby and Hunter walked up the long dirt drive that led to the Dixon farmhouse, they saw the garage door open, a car's hood open and Daryl leaning into it on one side and Sheriff Rick Grimes, one of Daryl's closest friends, leaning in from the other side.

While Abby looked just like their mom, a mini-Beth, with her small, almost fragile frame, big blue eyes, blonde hair and pale skin, Hunter looked like a straight Dixon. His personality was a mixture of their mom and dad but looks-wise, Hunter looked as if he could have been the little brother to Daryl and Uncle Merle. He had their nose and dark hair color and the same sharp cheeks and scowl on his lips.

Daryl lifted his head when he saw the two of them coming. "Hey. How was school?" He asked as they neared the garage.

Hunter shrugged. "Fine," he answered as he always did.

And Abby just nodded her head as she always did because nearly every day, one of her classmates said something to her and she didn't tell her parents every time it happened. Her mom would get upset and her dad would get angry and Abby just didn't want that.

Hunter went into the garage to join dad and Sheriff Grimes and Abby went into the house. The Dixons had a computer but none of them really used it except to type up school reports. There was an internet connection but being out in the middle of nowhere, the connection was slow – if it worked at all. So instead of going to the computer as she knew most kids her age would have done, Abby set her shoes and books down and then went to the row of red encyclopedias on the shelf in the living room, taking down the "J" volume and going to go sit on the window seat, turning her aids off once more.

She had loved jellyfish ever since she was a little girl and her parents took her and her brothers to Atlanta to visit Uncle Shawn for the weekend and they went to the aquarium. Abby had stood in front of the glass for almost ten minutes, just watching the jellyfish and the way they had seamlessly moved through the water. It was as graceful as a dance and each time she looked up at her dad – who had stood with her the entire time – she had given him a big smile and he had smiled back.

It was one of her earliest memories and she had loved jellyfish ever since.

She saw movement from the corner of her eye and saw that it was mom, standing there, not wanting to reach out and touch her and startle her, knowing that her aids were off because she always turned her aids off when she read.

Beth smiled and Abby smiled in return. She pulled her legs up closer to her chest and Beth took the silent invitation, joining her on the window seat.

"How was school?" Beth asked, keeping herself facing her so she could always see her lips as she talked. Abby gave a small smile and nodded her head but just as she did that, she saw a faint sadness creep into her mother's eyes and Abby knew that somehow, her mom already knew how school really had been that day. "Ms. Brandt called," she then explained the answer to the question that Abby hadn't asked.

And Abby lowered her eyes to the book, lodged between her chest and thighs; almost as if she was ashamed that her mom knew that the other kids picked on her.

She felt fingers in her hair and she lifted her head again to see Beth looking at her, smiling faintly but sadness still in her eyes as she brushed some of Abby's hair back from her face. "You can always talk to me, Abby. About anything," she told her.

And Abby's head nod was almost automatic but then she let out a slight sigh. She wished she could tell her mom so many things. She told her some things but not nearly as much as she knew she should. How the kids here could be so cruel and yet, she sometimes so desperately wanted them to like her and accept her. How she felt a tightening in her chest whenever she looked over to Max Moraine and she didn't understand why because he wasn't nice and he made her want to cry. But then sometimes, he would do something that could be interpreted as nice. walking past her in the cafeteria and dropping his unopened chocolate pudding on her tray without a word or once, helping her pick her books up when she had dropped them in the hall.

Beth leaned in then and her fingers went behind her ear and she turned on one of the aids before pressing her lips to Abby's forehead. "I love you more than anything in this world, Ms. Abby. And this world is so lucky to have you."

They heard the front door open then and both turned their heads to see that Daryl and Hunter were coming in.

"Invited Rick for dinner but he's on duty tonight and wanted to go home first," Daryl said as Beth stood up, her smile a little less saddened now.

"Alright. Well, _our_ dinner's almost done. Let me go check on it and Hunter, I need to talk with you. Come set the table," Beth said, heading towards the kitchen and Hunter let out a heavy sigh before he followed obediently after her.

Daryl walked over and kissed Abby on the head before he turned and left the living room once again, heading upstairs to wash himself up before they sat down to eat.

Abby stretched her legs out in front of her again and flattened the "J" book down across her thighs, reading the familiar facts over that she already knew concerning the jellyfish. She smiled a little as the Dixon black cat, Kyle, jumped onto the seat with her and began rubbing himself against her bare feet.

When her eyes scanned over the paragraph of how jellyfish did not have brains, she quickly closed her eyes, feeling them beginning to sting and she didn't want them to. It was no big deal. Just a comment said about her. Comments were made about her every day from her classmates. This was no different.

Maybe she was just caught off guard because Max had never been _that_ cruel to her.

She wish she could just disappear but she knew she never wanted to leave home. She could be like her dad or Uncle Merle. They went into the woods and didn't come out for a couple of days, sometimes just needing to get away from everything. Maybe she could start doing that, too. Daryl Dixon had raised his kids in those woods and they knew how to handle themselves. Spending a few days within them wouldn't be a hard task to do.

"Dinner!" Beth called out then from the kitchen and Abby closed the book, setting it aside and standing up, Kyle looking less than pleased about that.

They ate at the kitchen table – a family of four though no one ever sat in Luke's chair, always ready for him whenever he came home for a weekend – and Beth served spoonfuls of chicken and rice casserole.

And then after saying a prayer of thanks, Beth began talking about work that day at the daycare center and Daryl mentioned some new job he had been hired for – doing some woodwork for Tyreese and Karen for a house they had bought and were working on flipping. Hunter talked about his teacher, Mrs. Reid, and how he wasn't being paranoid. She honestly and truly hated him and he was pretty convinced that she was into voodoo practices because sometimes, he would feel a sharp pain on the back of his neck during class as if she was stabbing a doll she had made of him with a pin.

Abby was quiet as she ate as she always was, not having anything to say. She went to school and came home and read in all the times in between. Nothing new to report.

After dinner, she and Hunter helped clean off the table and then Beth and Daryl washed up and loaded the dishwasher. Hunter went outside to the garage where he was working on restoring a car he and Daryl had found in a junkyard over the summer and Abby returned to the living room, turning on a light and taking her "J" encyclopedia, she sat down on the window seat once again, stretching her legs out in front of her.

It was still bright out, the sun only now beginning to sink lower towards the west, and as she did every other night, Abby would stay up, reading, until her mom came to tell her that it was late enough and she had to go to sleep now to get up for school in the morning. But on Friday nights, Abby could stay up as late as she wanted to until she fell asleep with a book on her chest and the lamp on the nightstand table next to her bed still turned on.

Friday nights were her favorite time of the week. It was the longest possible time she had until she had to go back to school Monday morning.

She heard the other girls in her class talk about Friday night plans. Going to the mall in the next town over and going to the movies in their town's small single-screen theater or having a sleepover at someone's house. Abby had never been to a sleepover before. She wondered what they were like.

She wondered what it was like to have a friend she wasn't related to.

…

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 **Thank you very much for reading and please review!**


	2. Daryl

**Like _House Call_ , each chapter in this story will be a different POV. And because of that, it might be a little longer than I initially planned for it to be. **

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…

Girl had run off without her shoes on again.

They tried to tell her early on that she couldn't do that; that there were all sorts of things she could step on and hurt herself on but no matter how many times he and Beth told her to put shoes on, she never listened and as soon as the sun and ground were warm, her shoes became an afterthought. All Daryl and Beth could do was make sure she was up to date on her tetanus shot.

On Saturday mornings, the family had breakfast together before each went off in their own direction. Daryl and Hunter were in the garage, working on the car that would be Hunter's once it was put all back together again, Beth taught a few piano lessons in the living room to kids from town for a couple of hours, and Abby went up to her bedroom as she usually did – to read and to be alone.

Daryl had been trying to think of something to say to her. Her teacher, Ms. Brandt had called Beth Friday after school, and the two had talked for a while and then Beth had told him. Her classmates were being assholes to her and Hunter had punched some kid in the mouth because of it. He didn't even lecture Hunter about it. How could he? He wasn't crazy about his son fighting – still reminded him too much of Merle, even after all this time – but Hunter really only fought when Abby was involved and how could Daryl tell his son not to stick up for his sister?

It wasn't the first time they had gotten a call from Abby's teacher, telling them what happened to their daughter that day. Kids were assholes and he couldn't believe that there were parents in this town who were raising little assholes who made fun of a girl just because she was a little different. Not that being deaf was that big of a difference anyway and even if it was, what did that mean? That mean they'd laugh at an amputee or a kid with Down's Syndrome just because they were a little "different"?

Every time this happened, Daryl seriously started considering pulling Abby from that school and home-schooling her instead but he knew he couldn't do that. They didn't have the money for home-schooling their daughter and he knew Abby would probably hate it. She was miserable in that school most days but for some reason, she liked being there. She liked being around the other kids even though she turned her aids most times around them and they always made her feel so damn down about herself.

There was nothing wrong with her. Absolutely nothing.

And Daryl wished he knew how to say that to her to where she would believe him.

"Daryl!" Beth called out as she walked her last student of the morning out of the house and walked into the garage, both he and Hunter leaning into the engine. He lifted his head and looked at her. "Abby's not in her bedroom and I didn't hear her leave but she's nowhere else in the house."

And even though Abby had done this too many times to count now, Beth always worried. And with good reason. Their daughter was deaf and she didn't like to wear her hearing aids all the time and they lived in the middle of nowhere. Anything could happen. Daryl didn't watch that much television but when he did, he usually watched the ID channel. That made him have a distrust for everyone and he didn't like the idea of their thirteen-year-old daughter out there without them knowing where.

"A'righ," Daryl said, standing up straight and grabbing a rag from his pack pocket to wipe the oil and grease from his hands. "I'll go find her."

He handed Hunter the rag and left the garage, squeezing Beth's hip as he passed her and she looked up at him with her big, worried eyes, and he headed around to the back of the house. When Abby left, she usually went out the back door. He studied the ground for a moment and saw the slightest indentations in the grass. She hadn't been gone that long and he knew immediately she was without her shoes. The tracks were too light and he saw no noticeable heel like he would if someone was wearing shoes.

Following her wasn't hard. It wasn't as if Abby had set off, trying to cover her tracks, and she wouldn't be surprised to find out that he had been able to easily follow after her.

After being in the woods for a few minutes, he figured out pretty damn quick where she was. It was one of her usual favorite places and he headed there now with confidence. Sure enough, he saw her through the trees, sitting on a boulder near the creek, a book open in her lap and the sun shining down, keeping her warm.

And he knew her aids were off because he got too close and she didn't even lift her head from what she was reading. It was only when he sat down on the rock, across from her, did she lift her eyes, alerted to him being there. He almost always wanted to smile when he looked at her. His mini-Beth with her blonde hair and blue eyes almost too big for her face. She was fragile-looking like Beth; so small and delicate, people looked at her and probably thought she was as fragile as a doll. But like her mom, Daryl knew that Abby was a lot tougher than anyone would think. She had to be, going to school every day and enduring asshole kids.

"What are you readin'?" He asked, speaking out loud so she could read his lips but signing as well.

He wasn't surprised when Abby lifted the cover so he could see. It was her book of Emily Dickinson poems. Her Grandpa Hershel had found it at the church garage sale a couple of years ago – small with a purple cloth cover – and since then, Abby rarely went anywhere without the book with her. She long ago memorized every poem inside but that didn't stop her from reading them all over and over again.

Abby loved to read. They had discovered this when she was little and had first learned to read. She could never seem to read enough and Beth took her to the library at least three times a month for her to return and choose new books to borrow. In her room back home, Daryl had built a bookcase and they then proceeded to fill it – going to consignment shops and estate sales, Abby going through the books being sold for one or two dollars and walking out with an armful.

"Which one?" Daryl asked, his hands never stopping their signing.

When they learned that Abby just had about thirty-percent of her hearing, though the doctor warned them that she would lose more the older she got, after getting over their shock and sadness, Daryl and Beth dove right into it. So they had a daughter with hearing problems. So what? There was no reason why she couldn't still have a damn good life. Hell, sometimes Daryl wished he didn't have to hear the people in this world.

The community center offered sign language classes and the whole family went. Daryl, Beth, Luke, Hunter and of course, Abby. Hershel and Annette went as did Maggie and Glenn. Shawn found his own classes to take in Atlanta and even Merle showed up. It had taken them all a while to get it – especially Daryl. Sometimes, his hands felt too big and clumsy and he would get frustrated but then he reminded himself that this was for Abby. And he damn well better learn it because there was no way he was going to go through this life, unable to communicate with his own daughter.

Abby smiled and began to sign.

 _I'm nobody! Who are you?_

 _Are you nobody, too?_

 _Then there's a pair of us – don't tell!_

 _They'd advertise – you know!_

Daryl knew that one – it was one of her favorites – and he smiled a little because she was smiling as she signed but then, it slowly faded because today, his daughter would be reading a poem about being a nobody after being teased for the countless time at school. That was why he could never punish Hunter for the fights.

"You worried your mama, sneakin' out like that," Daryl told her.

Abby's smile faded and her eyes moved towards the water. She nodded her head but she kept her head turned from him so she wouldn't be able to see his lips moving or his hands signing to her. Daryl wasn't going to let her just cut him off though.

He stood up from his rock and crouched down in front of her, putting a hand on her knee. She liked to almost always wear dresses and her knees were almost always dirty.

"Abby," he said and she slowly turned her head to him. He didn't sign this time but he spoke slowly so she'd have no problem reading his lips. "What did I tell you when you were younger? You can come out here anytime you want. You just gotta let me know."

Abby nodded again. "I'm sorry," she signed.

And Daryl really couldn't lecture her about this. He understood more than anyone. Sometimes, she just needed to get away and slip into the woods to do so. She may have looked like Beth's twin on the outside but on the inside, almost all of her was him.

"You just gotta let me and your mama know. Easy, right?" Daryl asked with the slightest twitch of his lips and she nodded, smiling at him in return.

He wondered how things would be for her if they were some rich family. She'd be able to go to private school or have home tutors and her hearing aids should be able to slip right into her ears and be hidden the whole time. She wore her hair down every day so it wasn't like people saw the aids behind her ears but he just wondered if they were barely visible if she would turn the volume on more.

"Wanna head back? 's almost time for lunch."

Abby nodded again and Daryl stood up, taking a step back as Abby slid from the rock.

He didn't have his crossbow with them but it didn't matter when they saw the doe run past them. They didn't need the meat and Daryl was a hunter but he only hunted when his family needed it. Kill all the animals in the woods for no reason, he wouldn't be the only one he'd be screwing over.

They broke through the trees and came upon their white farmhouse and he could smell the change in the air. They were going to be getting rain that afternoon. The sky had been red that morning and now, he could feel it coming.

Climbing up the back steps, Daryl opened the screen door and let Abby walk in first. Beth was in the kitchen and the instant they walked in, she had her arms around Abby, hugging her and kissing her on the head.

"I'm going to be making a strawberry pie for dessert after dinner tonight. Want to help me?" Beth asked her and Abby nodded, smiling a little. Beth smiled, too, and kissed her on the forehead. "Go upstairs and wash up and then we'll get it started."

Abby hugged her book to her chest and left the kitchen and they heard her light steps climbing up the stairs. Beth turned to Daryl and he went to go get a glass from the cabinet and fill it with water from the sink tap.

As he drank it down, he turned and rested himself against the counter as Beth came to the sink next to him and began washing the containers of strawberries she had bought.

"Did she say anything?" Beth asked after a few minutes of passing silence.

Daryl shook his head. "Nah. She was just in her spot, reading her poetry. Don't think there's anythin' for her to say about it anymore."

Beth exhaled a soft sigh then and shook her head. "I just don't understand it. I mean, I know kids can be cruel. I remember that. I just can't believe they'd be cruel to a girl just because she can't hear like the rest of them."

"People suck, Beth. Been sayin' that for years now," he said with a shrug, trying to be casual about the whole but how the hell could he be? Not when it came to Abby getting picked up. He'd never understand it.

Abby was just like her mom. She was good and sweet.

Too good and too sweet for the people in this town.

When Abby came back into the kitchen again, Daryl smiled at her and kissed Beth on the side of the head before he left, heading back out towards the garage, joining Hunter again. Hunter was just like him on the outside and there was plenty of him on the inside but he had a mix of Beth, too. He was good and sweet, too – few people saw that though. They saw a kid who worked on cars and had bruises on his knuckles from fighting and they thought he was sliding right back into who the Dixons used to be.

The town had a habit of making assumptions with anyone with the Dixon last name even though they had all gotten to know Daryl and their opinions had changed towards him. But Merle was still Merle and he still had a habit of raising hell and getting locked up and most thought Hunter was going to be like his uncle rather than his dad.

After changing her flat and she had come up to his little house in the woods to thank him all those years ago, Daryl had no idea the path he and Beth would take together. Before her, he never even thought about getting married or being a dad. Most days, he was pretty sure he still had no idea how to be a husband or a dad though his first venture into fatherhood, he had done pretty good. He and Beth had gotten Luke through high school and he had been accepted into college. The first Dixon to ever go to college and that was a hell of an accomplishment for all of them.

Now, Daryl just had to make sure he got the other two kids at least graduating from school. He didn't care if they went to college or not. He knew Hunter was smart. The damn smartest kid in his class and probably all of the school, too, though he did his best to hide it. He knew Hunter could get scholarships and go to school and maybe become an engineer since he loved working with his hands so much.

But, although Hunter was smart at school, that didn't mean he liked school and Daryl knew that he would probably go to trade school and become a mechanic and that would be all Hunter would want in his life. And Daryl would be proud of him no matter what.

And Abby… Daryl had no idea how that girl's life was going to go.

And that was completely terrifying to him.

"How's it lookin'?" Daryl asked, poking his head under the hood, joining his son.

Hunter let out a sigh. "After I fix one thing, I find five more things wrong."

Daryl smirked a little at that. "Yeah, cars like this are like that. Just takes patience."

He handed Hunter a ratchet and then took one for himself and they got back to work.

"Abby okay?" Hunter asked after working for a few minutes in silence.

Daryl thought over that question for a while. The problem was, Abby was quiet and able to keep things to herself and even if something was far from okay, Daryl and Beth wouldn't know about it right away. The only reason they knew that something had happened yesterday was because her teacher had called. The Dixon kids had a strict code between them – a code both Daryl and Beth respected and understood. Unless it was something absolutely dire, they never told on one another concerning anything.

"Not too sure," Daryl responded honestly. "Guess we just have to sit and watch her like we always do."

Hunter was quiet for a moment and then he turned his head to Daryl. "Do you think she'd be happier in Atlanta, living with Uncle Shawn?"

And the suggestion, the question, would have surprised the hell out of Daryl – if he hadn't been thinking that himself already.

…

It started raining later that afternoon, just like Daryl knew it would.

Beth made dinner and baked the strawberry pie and Abby helped her in the kitchen for the rest of the day. They sat down a little after five with thunder rumbling overhead to chicken and wild rice and potatoes and had the strawberry pie for dessert and Beth and Hunter carried on the conversation as both Daryl and Abby were quiet – Daryl watching as Abby ate in small bites as always but steadily and she cleaned her plate. She hardly ever looked up and it was almost as if she was off in her own little world and no one else had the invitation to go except her.

After dinner was cleaned up, Hunter was going out to meet up with some friends and Daryl let him borrow the pickup truck.

"But you be back by eleven," Beth reminded him as she always did when he went out with his friends on the weekends. "We have church tomorrow morning."

And after Hunter was gone, Abby stood on the bottom step, staring out the front door from where the taillights had just disappeared into the darkness and the rain and there was such a look of longing on her face, it made Daryl's gut churn and he figured he was going to lose his dinner any second. He knew a bunch of sixteen-year-old boys and girls wouldn't want a thirteen-year-old tagging after them but he knew that Hunter probably wouldn't care and because Hunter didn't care, maybe none of his other friends would.

Maybe next time Hunter went out with his friends, it could be suggested that he take Abby with him.

"Do you want to watch a movie?" Beth asked Abby with a smile, signing to her.

Abby shook her head though. "I have to write my jellyfish report," she signed back and then without saying anything else, she turned around and Beth and Daryl watched as she climbed the steps. A moment later, her bedroom door closed with a quiet click.

Beth exhaled a deep sigh and Daryl stepped up behind her, his hand sliding onto her back, and she leaned back, needing him to support her right then. He stood strong for her and she rested against his chest, both his arms circling around her tightly.

"I'll watch a movie with you," he then told her in a low voice into her ear.

And a faint smile passed across Beth's face and she nodded, tilting her head affectionately towards his face and his lips brushed across her jaw.

…

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 **Thank you very much for reading and please take a moment to leave a review!  
**


	3. Hunter

**Beth's POV will be the next chapter and there will be more Beth/Daryl.**

 **Also, SO many people have asked so I'm just going to make a note about it here. I took down that story I had up of Ray Dixon because I had an idea in my head of expanding on it and telling it a different way. I just haven't gotten around to it yet just because there's a lot on my plate right now, writing wise.**

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…

 **Hunter.**

"What about this one?" Marty asked, holding up the case for _House of Wax_.

Fiona's face scrunched up with disgust. "You couldn't even pick the Vincent Price version? You had to go with the Paris Hilton remake?"

Marty ignored her and kept holding it up, waiting for Hunter to answer. But Hunter wasn't paying attention to his two best friends. Instead, he was looking over the top of the shelf from where they stood in the horror aisle, seeing him walk along the back wall where the new releases were kept. And as if the kid could feel Hunter staring at him, he was doing everything he could to not turn his head in this direction.

"Hey!" Fiona suddenly slugged Hunter in the arm, jarring his attention away from the punk-ass across the video store. He looked at her and frowned and normally, a Hunter Dixon frown could intimidate anyone but Fiona merely frowned herself, looking at him, though her frown was more one of concern. "What's going on?" She asked.

He knew that Fiona had a little bit of a crush on him. He supposed everyone knew that even though she had never done anything to really let her feelings for him be known. And Hunter was always silently relieved with that because while Fiona was awesome – by far one of the coolest girls he knew – he had also known her since they began kindergarten and it was hard to look at her and think of her as anything else but one of his best friends.

Hunter shook his head. "Nothing."

"Hunter, what about this one?" Marty asked again, still holding the DVD case up.

"No," Hunter answered, without looking at what was being suggested, and his eyes went back to looking at the kid, still along the back wall.

Max Moraine. He didn't know him. There was no reason for him to know a thirteen-year-old even though it was a small town and a small school and everyone knew pretty much everyone else. He knew his mom – Lydia Moraine worked at the barber shop in town, the only woman who worked there and who was trained as a barber and she had cut his hair more than a couple of times, always teasing him that he had to get his dad in her chair but he just smirked and responded always that his mom liked his dad's hair.

Mr. Moraine had died a few years ago. He had been a State Policeman and had been shot in the line of duty. The entire town had showed up for the funeral and the town was swarmed with other state policemen and even the Georgia Senator came to their town for the services. Lydia had never remarried and wasn't dating either, though she certainly got attention, especially from the men who went to the barber shop. Hunter wondered if because his dad died and his mom was always working, that's what made Max an asshole enough to make fun of a deaf girl.

Just thinking about it now, again, it made him clench his teeth together. He wasn't going to tell Max's mom what her son had done yesterday in school but on the other hand, maybe he should. There's no way that Lydia would be okay with her son acting like a little asshole.

But no. Talking to Lydia was something Daryl and Beth should do – if they wanted to. Knowing his mom, Beth would want to invite Lydia over for tea and pie and they would talk about everything except the real reason Lydia was over until finally, Beth would sigh softly and tell her and Lydia would hopefully be horrified at her son's behavior.

His dad was always saying it. People were assholes. And the older Hunter was getting, he was able to see more and more of that for himself. What the hell kind of people made fun of a girl just because she couldn't hear as well as them? Really? That's what the world had become? Hunter had never shied away from getting into fights because of Abby. He'd punch every single person in her class if that's what it came down to because what they did to Abby on a daily basis, it just wasn't right. Plain and simple, it wasn't right and they weren't good people.

Abby was better than all of them combined.

His dad hadn't immediately scoffed at Hunter asking if Abby would go to Atlanta to live with Uncle Shawn and that made him nervous because that meant that the idea had already been thought of. Would they really have Abby move away and live in the city? He knew his sister. She loved Uncle Shawn but she'd be absolutely miserable in Atlanta. It was too loud and too crowded and she wouldn't have her words and creek to run to when she had her moments where she just needed to get away from everything.

And what about him? Luke was already gone – away to art school in the city – and Beth and Daryl just couldn't take his other remaining sibling at home away from him, too.

"Fine," Marty sighed heavily then. "What about this one?" He asked, putting down _House of Wax_ and picking up another horror movie.

"Much better," Fiona nodded with approval and then looked to Hunter, elbowing him gently in the side. "Hunter?"

Hunter's eyes moved away from Max Moraine once again to look to his two best friends and saw that Marty was holding up _Friday the 13_ _th_ , the original. Hunter nodded in agreement this time and Marty grinned.

"And now. Snacks," he said and with that, he turned, heading out of the aisle.

"Hey," Fiona said, in a much quieter tone, and Hunter looked at her.

Fiona was pretty. Some would call her beautiful with perfect, mocha skin and tight black curls that she usually wore up in a ponytail because she hated how her hair reminded her of a steel wool brush. Her eyes were big and brown and Hunter sometimes wondered what it would be like to kiss her pale lips before he reminded himself that Fiona was like another sister and kissing her would probably be nothing but too weird.

He knew there were plenty of other boys in town who wanted to be able to kiss Fiona and he told himself that when that happened, he'd be perfectly fine with it.

"Thinking about Abby?" She asked and he hated it sometimes how she could read his mind. Marty had been his best friend for just as long as Fiona had and yet, Fiona seemed to be the only one who was able to peak into his brain and just know what was there. He loved Marty but it was probably because Marty could be a little slow sometimes. He wasn't an idiot. He just liked to act like one, not using his own brain a lot of the time.

Hunter shrugged though he guessed it was pretty damn obvious that he was. Everyone knew how much he loved his little sister. He exhaled a deep breath. "I think she might be moving to Atlanta to stay with my Uncle Shawn," he confessed.

"What?" Fiona gasped at that. "Your parents said that?"

"No, but when I mentioned it to my dad, he didn't immediately shoot it down."

He sighed again and his eyes went back to Max. Lydia had showed up now, saying something to him with a smile as she held up a movie and whatever it was, Max rolled his eyes but Lydia just laughed. Hunter wondered what he had told his mom about his swollen lip.

"Your mom would never have Abby be away from her," Fiona said with a shake of her head. "And she'd be miserable in the city. You can't walk around barefoot in the city," she then added with a small smile and Hunter smirked at that.

"Come on," he said, ready to get his mind off of it for a while, and he took her hand without thinking about it, walking them out of the aisle, heading to the front of the video store where Marty stood in front of the shelf of snacks, popcorn and drinks.

"It's seven o'clock on a Saturday night. Do you know where your son is?" A voice asked behind him and Hunter turned, instantly grinning when he saw his Uncle Merle.

"Hey," Hunter said, instantly dropping Fiona's hand and going to his uncle, who threw a strong arm around his shoulders and squeezed. "What are you doing here?" He asked.

"On my way to Blondie's to have a couple drinks with Ray and his new lady squeeze. Saw you through the window as I passed," Merle said, looking over to Marty and Fiona, before back to Hunter.

"Ray's got a girlfriend?" Hunter asked with a smile, for some reason, finding something very amusing about that. Ray was just like Merle and had seemed to like the company of different women without actually tying him down to just one. They liked to say that Daryl was definitely a different breed of Dixon.

"Yeah," Merle was back to grinning. "Some teacher he met at school and for some reason, she's givin' his sorry ass a chance. You guys wanna come?" He then asked.

"To Blondie's?" Marty perked up.

"We're sixteen," Fiona seemed unable to keep herself from frowning.

"Hell, younger than that when I went into my first bar," Merle grinned at her and Hunter couldn't help but brace himself for Merle to say something ridiculously offensive. He loved his Uncle but he knew that his Uncle could be a racist asshole when he wanted to be and it wouldn't matter to him if this girl was one of Hunter's best friends or not. "I've worked on and off at Blondie's for a few years. I know a few people and you kids just stick to drinkin' Coke. At least, that's what you tell your parents if they find out."

Hunter looked to his friends. Marty looked absolutely ecstatic at the idea of going into a bar. Especially Blondie's. Their town had three bars and Blondie's was definitely known as a bit of the "wild" one. It wasn't surprising that that was the one Merle preferred. It used to be Joe's but that was closed down years ago after being caught one too many times with drugs being dealt in the bathroom.

Fiona, however, had her arms crossed over her chest, looking uncomfortable. Hunter looked back and forth between the two of them and then up to Merle. He opened his mouth to say something but what, he still wasn't too sure, but Fiona spoke up first.

"I'm just going to head home," she said.

"A'right, sweetheart," Merle grinned. "It can be a guy's night out then."

"Hell, yeah," Marty said, his excitement growing more and more.

"Nah," Hunter shook his head before really thinking about it. "Marty, you can go but I better not. My parents will murder me if they find out. Even if I do drink just Coke."

Merle smirked at that, not arguing, knowing that that was absolutely true. "That's fine. Prob'ly the smart move. Don't want your mama killin' me anytime soon. You tell her I'm comin' over to dinner on Monday."

Hunter nodded that he would and Merle looked to Marty.

"You still comin'?" He asked.

"Hell, yeah!" He exclaimed this time and pushing the movie into Hunter's hands, he raced after Merle as they left the video store, leaving Hunter and Fiona together.

"You could have gone," Fiona said, looking to him.

"I'm serious. My parents would kill me if they find out I went to a bar," Hunter said. He could just imagine how his parents would react. Beth was the yeller and Daryl didn't yell but he stayed quiet and just stared and Daryl being quiet was just as terrifying. "You still wanna watch the movie?" He asked, holding up the plastic DVD case.

She broke into a soft smile and gave her head a nod. "Definitely."

After grabbing a box of Reese's Pieces and another of Whoppers, they stood in line to pay, and he stiffened slightly when he heard Lydia come up right behind him in line. He wondered if he should just ignore her or not but in small towns like this, ignoring someone – someone you normally was friendly with – just wasn't an option.

"Well, hi, you two," Lydia said then, making Hunter's indecisive mind up for him.

"Hi, Mrs. Moraine," Fiona turned around, smiling at the woman.

"Hey, Mrs. Moraine," Hunter said, trying to keep his eyes from Max as he stood next to his mom but of course, because he didn't want to look at him, that's exactly where his eyes went.

His lip looked pretty bad – swollen and bruised – but it would be a cold day hell before Hunter felt bad for giving that to him. Max should feel lucky that Hunter hadn't done more to him; that he should be thanking Abby for pulling him away before he could.

Lydia followed Hunter's eyes to Max's lip and she then laughed a little before sighing.

"Kids," she said with an amused shake of her head but offered no explanation to them as to how Max had gotten it.

Meanwhile, Max stood there and stared at the floor and didn't dare lift his eyes to look at Hunter. It was the smartest thing that kid had done yet.

…

Hunter woke up around seven on Sunday morning to the smell of bacon cooking in the air. Driving home from Fiona's house, he had gotten home by ten but everyone was already upstairs in bed and his mom had left the little lamp in the hallway on for him.

He slowly sat up, yawning, and shaking his head rapidly in an attempt to wake himself up. Kyle was curled at the foot of his bed, which surprised him. He usually slept on the big bed in his parent's room. Kyle had discovered when the cat had first come into their home that Hunter kicked too much in his sleep and the animal rarely slept with him.

Hunter pulled himself out of the bed, yawning again. He didn't know why his brain had woken him up if he was still tired but he never argued with his body. If it felt like he had gotten enough sleep the night before, who was he to tell it otherwise?

The farmhouse was always a little chilly in the mornings and as he tugged a sweatshirt on over his head, he heard a rumble of thunder and saw that a light rain was falling outside, tapping against the windowpanes and the roof.

Rubbing his hand over his dark hair, he shuffled out of his bedroom just as the bathroom door opened and Abby stepped out, still wearing her white nightgown.

"Morning," he signed to her with another yawn.

Abby just smiled tiredly at him without saying anything and he followed her down the stairs. Even though the Dixons were early risers, none of the kids were necessarily morning people and it took them until they had something in their stomachs for them to be able to carry on a conversation with anyone.

In the kitchen, Daryl was standing at the stove, frying up bacon, and he grunted a good morning in their direction as Hunter got two glasses and Abby got the orange juice from the refrigerator, both meeting at the table and sitting in their seats.

"Good morning!" Beth greeted happily as she walked into a kitchen a minute later and Hunter couldn't help but groan. His mom was one of those annoying people.

A morning person.

She kissed Abby on the head and then moved to Hunter, kissing his head, and then going to Daryl, she stood on her toes and kissed his cheek. She poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down in her chair next to Abby.

"How was last night?" Beth asked Hunter as she turned on one of Abby's aids.

Hunter shrugged. "Fine. Me and Fiona went to her house and watched a movie. Ran into Uncle Merle at the video store."

"What was he doin' there?" Daryl asked, coming to set the plate of bacon down in the center of the table. "He knows they took out their adult section, doesn' he?"

Hunter smirked a little at that. "He was on the way to Blondie's when he saw me. Did you know Ray has a girlfriend? Some teacher at the school?"

"I had no idea," Beth shook her head and then gasped. "Daryl! We need to plan something so we can meet her! Maybe a dinner party!"

Daryl grumbled something under his breath that sounded just like _son of a bitch_ before he returned to the stove to start frying up some eggs. Ever since moving into this house years ago, after Daryl fixed up and rebuilt nearly the entire thing, one of Beth's favorite things to do was throw dinner parties.

Hunter looked across the table, at Abby sitting, smiling faintly to herself as she held a piece of bacon with both hands, taking small nibbles.

"You know who it is," Hunter told her.

She instantly shook her head but the little smile still stayed on her face.

"Who is it, Abby?" Beth asked with growing excitement.

Abby finished her piece of bacon and hesitated before she signed the name. _Ms. Brandt_.

"No way," Hunter couldn't help but let a laugh out at that.

Ms. Brandt was young and nice but she was very conservative. Everyone knew that. She wore nylons and tights all year round and no one ever saw her bare legs in school while Ray had a tattoo of a naked lady on his shoulder blade.

"She's prob'ly goin' through a bad boy phase or somethin'," Daryl said as he came back to the table, placing four plates of fried eggs down in front of each of them before sitting down in his chair next to Hunter.

That seemed to happen in town and if a girl wanted a bad boy, a Dixon seemed to be the best choice. Ms. Brandt was nice and pretty and young but her family was a strict church-going family and Ray had served in prison more than once. There was no way that the family would ever approve of such a relationship – if a relationship is what they were having with each other.

Beth looked to Daryl with a faint smile and Daryl looked at her and smirked with a shake of his head and his parents were doing that thing they did. They sometimes had complete conversations with one another without ever having to verbalize a single word if they were in front of the kids and didn't want to them to hear. And no matter how many times Hunter had witnessed it, he still thought it was still freaky.

"Saw Mrs. Moraine and Max in the video store last night, too," Hunter changed the subject and at his words, Abby stopped in mid-chew to look at him. "Almost told her that she needs to do something about her son."

"That's not your place," Daryl said with a frown, his eyes looking to Abby.

"I said _almost_ ," Hunter reiterated.

Beth let out a sigh. "Maybe I should have Lydia over for tea sometime this week. Just to talk with her about Max and-"

Abby dropped her fork on her plate with a clang and stood up so quickly, she almost knocked her chair over. "No!" She shouted, startling them all, and then she ran from the kitchen, her feet quickly ascending the stairs.

And Beth didn't hesitate in hurrying after her.

Behind them, they left nothing but the sound of rain falling.

Daryl stood up to pour himself a cup of coffee and Hunter took another piece of bacon though as he chewed it, he felt it settle heavily in his stomach like he was slowly filling himself up with sawdust.

He left the kitchen after another moment and went up the stairs to get himself ready for church. Daryl and Beth's bedroom was at the top of the stairs and across from it, was Abby's. Hunter paused and looked in.

It was small – decorated in shades of pink and yellow. An old white bedframe with a pink and yellow quilt that Grandma Annette had made for her for her tenth birthday. An old wooden dresser with a mirror hanging above it and a wooden nightstand, painted white, next to the bed. A pink and yellow checkered rug was on the floor, spread out across the wood floor, and she had one window looking out the side of the house and another overlooking the backyard, her bed pushed against that one. And there were books absolutely everywhere. Filling the bookcase against the wall that Daryl had made for her, books on the dresser and nightstand, a couple piled up next to the bed and a couple on the bed that she read from before bed and fell asleep with her.

Abby was on the bed, her head on the pillow and her body shaking with sobs, and Beth sat beside her, rubbing her back, looking as if she was going to start crying herself.

"Everyone hates me," Abby gasped through her tears.

Beth instantly shook her head. "No. No, Abby. No one hates you. _I_ love you."

But Abby just cried harder and Hunter squeezed his eyes shut as he passed and headed back into his bedroom as if that would help block the sound out from his ears.

…

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 **Thank you very much for reading and please take a moment to review!  
**


	4. Beth

**Luke's POV will be the next part and then for the sixth and final part, we'll get back to Abby.**

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…

 **Beth.**

She loved her sons. No one would ever be able to say something as stupid as she didn't.

But Abby was different. She had always been different. She was her only daughter; her little twin. And she loved her daughter more than she loved breathing fresh air. And with Abby hurting so much, it gave Beth a pang in her chest that brought tears to her eyes. And to make it even worse, Beth had absolutely what she could do to make it better.

There was a school in Atlanta. A school that specialized in deaf children. When they first learned of Abby's hearing, Beth and Daryl had entertained the idea of sending her there for about two seconds. There were a few problems with it. It was private and the tuition was just about as much as a year of Luke's art school. Another was it was in Atlanta and Shawn was there, yes, but none of their other family was and maybe it was selfish but Beth couldn't stand the idea of Abby being away from them; away from her. And Abby would absolutely hate it. Beth knew her daughter. Her daughter was a child of the woods; the daughter of Daryl Dixon. She loved to be barefoot and go running through the trees and feeling the sun on her skin and hearing nothing for miles except birds.

Abby would be miserable in Atlanta and they would be miserable without her here.

They went to church every Sunday and after consoling Abby enough where the girl could finally get herself ready, Beth went across the hallway into hers and Daryl's bedroom, closing the door behind her. She didn't move towards getting herself reach for church. Instead, she went to the bed and sat down on the side, looking out the windows that overlooked the backyard but not really seeing anything. She didn't understand why this was happening. Her daughter was beautiful and sweet and she didn't only think that because Abby was her daughter. It was the truth. Abby was a wonderful girl and the fact that her classmates couldn't see that – the fact that they liked to tease her and pick on her and exclude her – it made her angry but it made her want to cry, too.

She wished she knew what she could do to help her daughter. Beth would do anything.

Finally, Beth made herself stand up. If she just lingered in bed, she'd think of Abby and the ache in her chest would grow worse because she just didn't know what to do. Maybe sending her to Atlanta _was_ the answer. She and Daryl could sit down and figure it out. They had always been able to figure out everything else that came their way. There was no reason why they wouldn't be able to send their daughter to school in Atlanta if that was what she needed to be happy and to have a good life. They just had to sit down like they always did and figure out how they would possibly pay for it.

Maybe a loan…

She knew that would take Daryl some convincing. He hated borrowing money from anyone. Even from her parents. When Luke went off to college, they had been saving for years. They received money every month from the government after they adopted him, as a way to "encourage" and "reward" those who adopted, and each month, the check went into the bank, rarely to ever be touched. The school he had been admitted into wasn't too outrageous like some college tuition's and he received a scholarship and he also had a part time book that helped him pay for his supplies.

They hadn't had to borrow money then and Daryl wouldn't want to borrow money now.

But Beth couldn't image how they'd be able to swing a yearly tuition for Abby for the amount that the private school was asking for.

Maybe she could leave her job at the daycare center and begin homeschooling Abby. When Daryl quit his job at the auto garage, he had been worried because that's what Daryl did. He worried – and always about money. Daryl was one of the hardest working men Beth had ever known because he refused to ever have someone say his name along with the word "lazy". Too many Dixons before him had never done anything and Daryl was nothing like the others before him. He had proven that time and time again.

But even with them down one paycheck, he did other work that had more than made up for it. Her daycare check wasn't much but she had gotten little bumps in pay over the years – not much by any means but every little bit helped. And between the random work he still did on people's cars in their garage and the meat he hunted and sold, Daryl brought home enough money, too. Not to mention his woodworking business. That was what really brought home money – more than he ever made at the garage. Daryl's name was growing and becoming known throughout the entire state of Georgia. He had built himself a nice little carpentry business and it kept him plenty busy with work.

But even being comfortable financially in their life, that didn't mean they would have enough for a private school in Atlanta for their daughter.

Her mind wandered back to homeschooling.

She finally got herself into the bathroom to begin getting herself ready and after taking a quick shower and brushing her teeth, she stepped from the bathroom into the bedroom, holding the towel around her body, and Daryl was in there now, too, standing in front of the wardrobe, getting his church clothes together.

He looked over his shoulder to see that it was her – as if he was expecting it to be someone else – and without a word, Beth came to him. Her arms slipped around his waist and her head turned and rested on his chest and Daryl's arms were around her, too, his chin resting on top of her head. It had always been one of his favorite things; how well her body seemed to fit perfectly against his.

The first time she had done this, hugged him and found herself to be the perfect size to fit against him as if they were molded together, she had closed her eyes and smiled to herself. His heartbeat had filled her ear – steady and strong – and Beth knew that she didn't want to hear anything else for the rest of her life except Daryl Dixon's heartbeat.

She exhaled a soft sigh and Daryl's arms tightened around her. "I've been thinking…" she began but then trailed off, wanting to choose her words carefully. "I think we could manage it, if I didn't work at the daycare center anymore…"

"Wanna home-school?" He asked and she was grateful this man could read her mind.

"Maybe just for this year… maybe get her out of there for a while," Beth said though deep down, she couldn't imagine it actually getting better as the kids got older.

Daryl was quiet and she didn't say anything else because she knew he was thinking it over. That's what they both had to do. They just had to take a while and think it through. Homeschooling was a big decision and a big responsibility. Beth knew she could do it. She had been teaching little preschoolers and younger for years now, yes, but teaching her own daughter would be different. There would be science and math, history and English lessons, but they'd be able to have class outside some days and Beth would be able to draw up lesson plans that were more tailored towards Abby's interests and maybe, this was something that could really work.

If it was something Abby would want.

Beth would have to do a bit more research and talk with the school and see what they had to do, what sort of arrangements and paperwork that had to be done, before pulling Abby out of that school.

Daryl moved his head and then his lips were on her hair, kissing her, yes, but more like just resting them there than anything. He didn't say anything and she didn't either and she knew they had church to get ready for but neither seemed ready to step out of the other's arms quite yet.

…

The Dixon family sat in the same pew every week and in the pew in front of them, Hershel and Annette, Maggie and Glenn along with their daughter, Meg, always sat. Beth led the way and sat down first with Abby sitting down beside her. She wasn't wearing her aids this morning but for once, Beth hadn't told her to put them in so she could listen to the sermon.

Beth took church very seriously. She had grown up in a religious home and had gone to church every week and was a firm believer of God and their faith. When she had married Daryl, she knew that he hadn't been but he came to church because he knew it was important to her and when they had children, it was never a discussion as to if they would be raised in the church or not.

But this morning, Abby made herself deaf to everything around her and Beth let it slide because her daughter was hurting and Abby was just like her dad. Sometimes, they just had to removed themselves from everything around them. So, as Father Gabriel was up on the altar, talking about the passages he had read from this morning, Abby looked ahead but wasn't hearing much except quiet murmurs. She wasn't completely deaf. The doctor saying that as she got older, she would lose more and more until yes, she was completely deaf but for now, she could hear sounds – low and as if they were under water and she could never hear them clearly.

And Beth admitted that she wasn't really listening either. Her thoughts were too occupied with the girl sitting beside her, drawing patterns on the flowers of the dress she wore with the tip of her index finger. Was home-schooling the best answer? It would seem a bit more realistic to the family than a private school in Atlanta that they probably couldn't afford no matter how well Daryl's business was doing. And Daryl did absolutely anything for his children but Beth knew he wouldn't want to borrow the kind of money that it would probably take to get Abby into that school.

So, the special school in Atlanta was more than likely not even an option to entertain. And they couldn't leave her in school where her classmates teased her on a daily basis.

Beth slid her hand over and covered Abby's and the girl lifted her head, turning to look at Beth, and Beth smiled faintly and Abby gave a matching faint smile in return. She turned her hand over so her fingers could interlock with Beth's hand and Beth gave it a squeeze. Abby leaned over and rested her head on Beth's shoulder and Beth rested her cheek on top of Abby's head.

At the end of the service, Father Gabriel had some announcements to make.

"The fall bake sale is next Sunday following service. Please bring money to purchase as many goodies as your stomachs are able to handle to help support our church and help with our fund to help get us that new roof we are in need of. I know gluttony is a grave sin but I think the Lord will understand when it comes to the delicious goods that the wonderful ladies of our congregation always bake," Father Gabriel smiled at them all.

"Also," he continued. "We have a new family who has just moved into our little town and have joined our church. Please take a moment to welcome the Conway family."

There was applause directed towards the family of three in one of the pews in the middle of the church and then, with that, service was finished.

"What are you going to bake for the sale next week, Abby?" Annette asked her granddaughter as they all walked out of the church.

"Strawberry pie," Abby signed to her and Annette smiled at that.

"You make the best strawberry pie in the county, Ms. Abby," Hershel smiled. "I think if that was the only thing that was sold next week, we'd get that new roof in no time."

Abby smiled faintly and blushed and lowered her eyes to the ground. Her hand was still encased in Beth's and Beth gave her a smile and gentle squeeze.

They had discovered Abby's talent when she was a little girl and wanted to try and bake cupcakes for the first time. They had bought her an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas and after that, if she wasn't off somewhere with one of her books, she was baking something. And she was amazing at it. Beth had always thought her mama was the best baker she had ever known but her own daughter was quickly rising the ranks to surpass that. Hershel was right and it wasn't just proud boasting from a grandfather in regards to his granddaughter. Abby's strawberry pie was delicious and slices of it would sell out next Sunday within minutes.

"Talked to Father 'bout puttin' the roof on myself with help from T," Daryl said. "Man turned me down though. Said the church needs to come together and work for what we need. That we can't rely on only a couple of men."

"The man is right," Hershel nodded. "Seems like we're going to rely on Abby's strawberry pie instead," he said with a smile.

"Good morning," a voice greeted and the family turned their heads to see that it was Ms. Brandt, standing there, smiling at them but looking as if she was apologizing for imposing upon them.

"Good morning, Ms. Brandt," Beth smiled at her and looked to the pretty small woman, imagining her dating her husband's cousin, Ray. It certainly didn't seem like it would be a couple that worked – Cecily with the bible in her arm and Ray with his tattoos – but people had said the same thing about her and Daryl when they found out about them.

"Hello, Abby," Ms. Brandt then smiled to the girl but Abby's eyes were still turned down to the ground and didn't hear her or even know that she was there. Beth gave her daughter's hand a gentle squeeze and Abby lifted her head, seeing her teacher there, and Cecily said hello to her again.

Abby didn't say anything. She just gave a small smile in response and lowered her eyes again. Beth saw the way Ms. Brandt's own smile slipped a little. Beth knew this woman was a good teacher – kind and fair – and she could control the kids while in the classroom but not when they were out and Abby's teasing wasn't her fault but looking at the woman, Beth could see that she definitely blamed herself for it.

"You got a second to talk?" Daryl asked suddenly and Beth looked at him with surprise but he was looking at Cecily.

"Of course," she nodded immediately – as if she already knew what this was about – and Daryl then looked to Beth.

Beth kissed Abby's head and Abby looked at her. "Stay with your brother and grandparents," she signed and Abby nodded and Hunter, having heard, nodded, too.

Together, Beth and Daryl then stepped away with Cecily, walking away from their family and towards one of the Southern Oak trees growing on either side of the church, Daryl's hand light on her back, as if to let her know that he was standing right here with her; as if she would expect him to be anywhere else.

"I just want to apologize right now for what happened on Friday," Cecily said before they could say anything.

"It wasn't your fault," Beth said with a shake of her head.

"Still, it was in my classroom. I took Max Moraine out into the hallway immediately and talked with him," Cecily told them. "He _did_ seem sorry. Almost as if he regretted it the instant he made the comment. I told him that he had to apologize to Abby but I take it that he hasn't done that yet."

Beth shook her head. "Not yet…" she didn't know if she should hold her breath for that or not. "Daryl and I have been thinking of something and I wanted to do a bit more research on it before talking with you but no time like the present." Her eyes trailed up to Daryl but he was looking at her and not saying anything. Beth exhaled a deep breath and looked back to Cecily Brandt. "What would it take for us to start homeschooling Abby?" She asked.

And she watched as Cecily seemed to completely deflate in front of them – as if that was the last thing she ever wanted to hear.

…

Once home, Abby went upstairs to her room and then came down again with a book in her hand and no shoes on her feet. She stood in the kitchen and looked to Beth.

"Just be sure you're home by three for dinner," she said and Abby smiled before turning and running out the back door. Beth watched her for a moment, watching as she cut across the yard and the field beyond that, disappearing into the trees a moment later.

Glenn and Daryl had stopped off at his and Maggie's house after church before coming back to the Dixon farmhouse. Something was going on with the water heater in the basement and Glenn knew his brother-in-law was much better at that kind of stuff than he was. Hunter came downstairs, changed out of his church clothes, and after grabbing an apple from the bowl on the table in the kitchen, he went off to go work on his car in the garage and his younger cousin, Meg, followed after him, Maggie calling after her daughter to not get her clothes all dirty. Meg waved a hand through the air back at her with a nine-year-old attitude and Maggie sighed, rolling her eyes.

"It's punishment," Maggie said, leaning against the counter as Beth pulled a pack of chicken breasts and legs from the freezer to defrost in the sink for dinner. "I was an absolutely terrible girl when I was that age and now, God has given me Meg as punishment so I can now understand everything I put daddy and Annette through."

Beth smiled but didn't comment – mainly because she absolutely believed that was the truth. Meg was such a sweetie but she definitely had something of an attitude that only the daughter of Maggie Greene-Rhee would be able to develop. Beth was just silently grateful that Meg was Maggie's daughter and not hers.

"So, what's going on?" Maggie asked. Beth turned to look at her. "You're quiet and keep looking at Abby and Daryl is always frowning but it usually breaks up after a while. This frown seems pretty permanent on his face."

Beth sighed and shook her head. "It's nothing. Abby's getting picked on and she… she's just so unhappy and Daryl and I don't know what to do."

Maggie slammed her hand down on the counter suddenly, startling Beth. "Those little assholes. Really? They're making fun of a _deaf_ girl? What the fuck is the matter with them? Who the hell are these parents?"

Beth agreed with everything her sister had just said but she wasn't able to say it. She could only nod because she felt a lump in her throat and her eyes began burning.

"You remember how kids are at that age," Beth was able to say then. "No one's allowed to be just even a little bit different."

"She's not different," Maggie frowned, looking like the fierce aunt she was. "Just because she has hearing problems doesn't make her different. And even if she was, so what? What the hell is so bad about being different? Beats being like one of these small-minded idiots. I'd rather be barefoot in the woods with Abby any day."

And Beth smiled and nodded in agreement even as tears splashed down her cheeks because that was exactly how she felt.

"Hey," Daryl said suddenly, surprising her. She hadn't expected him home yet - Glenn wasn't much of a handyman and Daryl liked to look over everything when over there – and she hadn't even heard him come into the room. "Gonna need to plan for one more for dinner," he said.

"Who else is coming?" Beth asked.

For the first time all morning, it looked like Daryl wanted to smile as he stepped aside, showing to Beth who was standing behind him in the hallway.

"Luke!" She exclaimed and with her tears momentarily forgotten, she hurried to go and hug her oldest, and she never seemed to realize just how much she missed him until he surprised them with little visits like this on the weekends. And he couldn't have picked a better time to come back home.

…

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 **Thank you very much for reading and please take a moment to leave a review!**


	5. Luke

**Confession time - I'm not entirely sure why I wrote this. Who wants to read a story about OC kids to Daryl and Beth instead of a story actually about Daryl and Beth? And not even that but why did I write something so depressing for these kids?**

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…

 **Luke.**

He didn't have any classes on Monday and unless he had a project to work on, he liked to come home some weekends – just to get away from campus and the city. Being in Atlanta for two years, some days, he still didn't feel used to it. He missed the quiet and the openness that living in the middle of nowhere provided. He missed sitting on the front porch of their white farmhouse and hearing nothing except insects and feeling like they were the last ones alive in the world. Atlanta was so noisy and crowded and driving around was a nightmare no matter where he had to go and he had always thought he would move to a city when he was older but he had learned that that probably wasn't for him. When he graduated from art school in another year, he'd probably move back here – only driving to Atlanta when he had art he wanted to try and show. Molly had one more year of school left, too, and she already had plans herself of moving back here and hopefully getting a teacher's job at the school.

Luke knew something was wrong but what, he didn't know, because Beth saw him and almost burst into tears and then she hugged him tightly and didn't seem to want to let go. Luke was taller than her – had been ever since his growth spurt at thirteen – and he had to bend down to hug her properly.

He heard her sniffle and she pulled her head back, looking up at him, giving him a warm, happy smile even though her eyes were watery.

"It's so good to have you home," she said as she rubbed his arms. "How was the drive?" She then asked and stepped away so Aunt Maggie could give him a quick, tight hug.

"It was alright," Luke nodded, still watching his mom closely as she moved to the other side of the island counter in the middle of the kitchen, taking a rolling pin from the drawer. It was Sunday so she was probably making biscuits for dinner as she did nearly every other Sunday for dinner.

Something was definitely wrong but he didn't know what. No one had said anything. When he pulled up to the house, outside just a few minutes ago, Daryl had seen him and had given him a smile – as much as Daryl Dixon did smile – and clapped his hand on his shoulder, telling him to was really good to see him and Hunter had agreed.

"Where's Abby?" He asked, looking around the kitchen as if expecting her to materialize right then and suddenly be there.

"Woods," Daryl answered as he went to the sink, filling a glass with water. "You should go see her. She'll be happy to see you."

"Alright," Luke nodded. "Let me just toss this up in my room," he said, referring to the duffel bag at his feet.

"Leave that, sweetie," Beth said, rubbing flour on the counter and rolling pin. "I'll take care of it."

"You don't have to do my laundry, mom," Luke said as he always said because anytime he came home, she always seemed willing – almost eager – to do his laundry for him. He brought it home because he didn't want to pay quarters for every load he had to wash. He didn't bring it home because he expected his mom to wash it for him.

"Come on," Hunter said, grabbing Luke's arm and without giving him a second to even go to the bathroom after the drive, he tugged him out the back door.

"Alright," Luke said the instant they were outside and began cutting across the backyard towards the woods where Abby usually slipped off to. "What the hell is going on?"

Hunter exhaled a heavy sigh then as if he had been holding his breath. Luke didn't say anything as Hunter told him everything – a classmate making fun of her, Hunter punching him, how upset and sad Abby had been for the past couple of days. And nothing Hunter said was surprising to Luke. He loved this small town and living here and he missed it but unfortunately, the small town was full of plenty of stupid people. Abby had been teased occasionally for her hearing and the way she talked – slow and awkward sounding and kind of loud – but it seemed to have gotten worse over the past couple of years since Luke had left and they had all gotten older.

He sighed heavily. "So, what's going to happen?" He asked.

Hunter shrugged. "Mom and dad are doing that thing where they talk with one another without ever actually saying anything."

Luke nodded, knowing what he was talking about.

They walked through the woods. To anyone else, there wouldn't be a clear path in front of them. Trees that all looked alike and green foliage and fallen, rotted logs. But Daryl had raised his kids in the woods and they knew where to go. They used to play games – if the world ended – and they would camp out for the weekend with nothing except the pack on their backs. They knew how to hunt and make a shelter, a fire and how to make water safe for drinking. It wasn't as if they truly thought the world was going to end. Daryl just wanted to make sure his kids were prepared for anything and weren't helpless. And all of them – at one time or another – wished they could just forget about the whole world and go live in the woods forever.

His freshman year of college, even though he preferred sketching with pencils, he had taken his first photography class. He hadn't expected to like it that much but the more pictures he took, the more his teacher told him that he had a natural eye for photography. He bought an old beat-up 35mm camera of his own from a nearby thrift store and started taking as many pictures as he could and couldn't seem to stop.

Each semester, there were art shows for photography, sketch, paint, sculpture and digital – the five main branches of art that the school focused on. Luke had submitted one of the photographs he had taken and it had wound up on winning the overall top ribbon of any of the pieces submitted in any of the five categories. The family came up to every art show the school had and Beth had been so proud of him, she had instantly taken the picture to the store to get it professionally framed and it now hung on the wall in the living room above the piano.

It was a picture of Abby. Black and white and slightly blurry. She was wearing one of her dresses – a white lace dress that Beth had found for her at the Salvation Army in town with a torn hem but it was Abby's favorite dress to wear – and her feet were bare, her hair down and streaming behind her as she ran. Luke had snapped the pictures just as she was about to slip into the trees and he had named the photograph "Wilding".

It was the picture that made him drift away from sketching and put more focus on photography. Now, he couldn't seem to take enough pictures of the woods.

But that picture of Abby remained his best – and his favorite. It captured everything Abby was in just a second of snapshot. Free and wild and happy. He knew some of the kids her age in town joked that she was feral but they only said that because they didn't understand her. They didn't understand how someone could feel a greater connection with the woods and the outdoor world than with most people.

He wondered what mom and dad would do. If Abby was getting bullied and if she was so unhappy, he didn't doubt that mom and dad would do something; whatever they had to do to get Abby to be happy again. Luke just didn't know what they could. It wasn't as if they could miraculously restore her hearing and it seemed as if that was the reason she was being picked on – which was one of the worst things Luke had ever heard.

Abby's usual spot was on a large boulder next to a small stream and sure enough, when he and Hunter came through the trees, that was where they found her. Sitting on the rock, basking in the sun, with no shoes on her feet and a book open in her lap. She wasn't wearing her hearing aids but she saw movement from the corner of her eye and she turned, instantly seeing her two brothers. She burst into an immediate smile and leaped from the rock.

"Luke!" She exclaimed happily and came to throw her arms around his neck.

Luke grinned and hugged her back. "Hey," he greeted back.

They all settled down – Abby taking her spot upon the boulder once again and Luke setting himself down on the smaller rock across from her and Hunter went to the bank of the stream, watching the rushing water.

"Everything okay?" Luke asked her, keeping his lips turned towards her.

And Abby hesitated for just a moment before she nodded. The smile had shrank in size but it still remained across her lips. She signed back quickly to him. "Everything's great."

He just looked at her though. Even if Hunter hadn't told him everything, he still wouldn't have believed her. Abby was just like Beth and if something was bothering them or upsetting them, neither were able to keep it a secret. Their eyes were too open; too expressive. Luke looked at his little sister right now in this moment and knew that she was hurting. And he didn't know what he could do about it.

And he hated that. He was the oldest. One of his jobs was to take care of Hunter and Abby. Hunter, of course, had made it be known early on in their lives that he was tough and could take care of himself but that didn't stop Luke from being his big brother and looking out for him anyway.

Once, a few years earlier, Hunter had gotten in trouble – throwing rocks through the windows of an abandoned little warehouse on the outskirts of town with his best friend, Marty. The police had come and the two boys had run but the police hadn't doubted it had been doing the damage. But when they came to talk with Hunter about his whereabouts that afternoon, Luke hadn't hesitated in telling the police that Hunter had been with him. He knew their parents wouldn't like it but he knew Daryl would understand because that's what Dixons did. They looked out for one another and if needed, they gave one another alibies.

But Abby wasn't like Hunter or like Luke. She needed someone to look after her. She was a Dixon, too, and was stronger than most people would ever suspect but Daryl had made sure he taught his sons one thing and it was a lesson they learned and never forgot. They treated women with the utmost care and respect and no matter how much they said they didn't need it, the Dixon men were always to look out for them.

Hunter had already punched the kid so at least that part was taken care of. Luke hoped Daryl and Beth had already something in the works to try and fix the rest of it.

…

Aunt Maggie, Uncle Glenn and Meg had left – wanting to give the Dixon family a chance to enjoy Sunday dinner with just the five of them – and that night, they ate dinner in the dining room rather than the kitchen.

Beth had made roasted chicken with a mushroom crème sauce and there was wild rice, freshly baked biscuits and roasted parsnips and carrots. Sunday evening dinner was always a bit of a feast for their family. The three kids had grown up with home-cooked meals nearly every single night. Sometimes, they would get pizza but for the most part, they always sat down and ate what Daryl or Beth had prepared themselves in the kitchen. Growing up, eating dinner together as a family had been important to the Greene family and when she had married Daryl, Beth knew she wanted it to be important to their own family.

The talk at the table was typical. Beth and Daryl asked Luke about school and he talked about the photography project he was in the middle of working on and he talked about the job that he had gotten to help pay for supplies and equipment needed for school. Nothing fancy. He was just bussing tables at a nearby restaurant and washing dishes. It helped him pay for film and pencils and that was all he cared about.

"And your fall break's in three weeks, right?" Daryl asked.

"Is Uncle Merle coming?" Luke asked as he nodded confirmation to Daryl's question.

Deer season was almost here and opening weekend, Daryl and Luke went on a hunting trip, going deep into the woods and staying away for two or three days. It was a tradition they had shared with one another since Luke was four and Daryl had first taught him how to hunt. Despite his name, Hunter had never been interested in it. They had taken him hunting one time and the boy had been too loud and anxious for the quietness and patience that hunting entailed.

"Who knows? He'll show up the mornin' 'fore we leave if he wants to come," Daryl said.

"Did you finish your jellyfish report, Abby?" Beth asked to the girl sitting next to her. On the weekends, if she wanted to go without her aids, Daryl and Beth let her but she had to wear them at the dinner table so she could hear the conversation.

It was Daryl's opinion that if she wanted to ignore the world, that was fine, but she couldn't ignore the family.

Abby nodded. "I wrote about the Lions Mane Jellyfish. It's the largest jellyfish in the world and they've been swimming the arctic waters since before the dinosaurs. They're one of the oldest surviving species in the world," she said and signed at the same time and spoke with an eagerness in her voice that made them all smile as they listened to her.

"You need to come back to Atlanta, Abs," Luke smiled at her from across the table. "We can go back to the aquarium," he said and Abby smiled and nodded quickly at that.

As he got himself more parsnips, Luke noticed their parents doing that thing that Hunter had talked about. It was something they were able to do and had been doing for as long as Luke could remember. He couldn't figure out how it was possible but they were able to have entire conversations with one another without either of them ever opening their mouths. They had been together a long time, Luke knew, but still, it always seemed unnatural to him that they could do it and no exactly what the other was saying just from their eyes or a look.

"Abby," Beth then said once it seemed like the conversation between her and Daryl was finished. She turned in her seat towards her daughter and Abby looked at her curiously; a curiosity that both Luke and Hunter shared with her right now. "Your dad and I have been talking about something and we talked about it with Ms. Brandt a little bit this morning after church."

She spoke slowly so Abby wouldn't miss a word on her lips.

"And actually, this concerns the whole family, too," Beth said, looking to Hunter and Luke before looking back to Abby. "If I was to leave my job and stay home, do you think you'd like to be home-schooled?"

Hunter frowned at that but didn't say anything and they all watched closely for what Abby's reaction would be to the idea.

And within seconds of Beth asking the question, Abby gasped and then threw her arms around Beth's neck, hugging her tightly, and Beth was so taken aback with the reaction, she couldn't help but laugh a little and hug her tightly in return.

Luke watched for a moment and looked back to Daryl. "You think this is the best move?"

He didn't know everything that had been going on. He knew what happened to Friday definitely wasn't the first time Abby had been picked on and yet, to pull Abby out of school and home-school her instead, it just seemed like such a drastic move. Wasn't it?

Daryl took a moment to cut himself a piece from his chicken breast and he chewed on it as thinking it through thoroughly before giving an answer. Abby then came rushing around the table before he could say anything though and practically threw herself against Daryl. And Daryl broke into one of his rare smiles as he hugged her.

Hunter took it upon himself to answer. He watched Abby for a moment and then looked to Luke. "She hasn't been this happy for a real long time," he said.

And Luke looked at her, too. Abby was back in her seat now, signing to Beth so fast with her hands, Beth laughed a little and told her to slow down and it looked as if Abby's entire being was glowing. Her smile was bright, matching the brightness in her eyes, and just from the girl he had seen this afternoon – the small smile, the slight dullness to her eyes, not wanting to tell him the whole truth, Abby now looked completely different.

Hunter was right. She was happy.

After dinner, they helped clear the table and Daryl packed away the leftovers – usually always for Uncle Merle because no matter how old they were, Daryl always made sure his brother was fed – and Beth washed the dishes and loaded the dishwasher.

"The kid you punched," Luke said to Hunter in a low voice even as they were in the living room and Beth and Daryl wouldn't be able to hear them. "Who was it?"

"Max Moraine," Hunter answered. "And if he's the main reason why mom and dad are pulling Abby out of school, I'm punching him again tomorrow."

Luke saw nothing wrong with that.

…

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 **Thank you very much for reading and please comment!**


	6. Abby II

**Thank you to everyone who read and took a second of their time to leave me a review. It means so much because fanfiction writers don't get paid. We do this for fun and reviews are our reward. I don't know if I will write the kids from HC at this age again but I'm glad there were those who seemed to enjoy it. Thank you again!**

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…

 **Abby.**

It had begun happening when Luke began going through – and then coming out of – puberty. Beth had said it often during that time and it seemed as if many of the other females in their little town agreed. Luke had grown into a very handsome young man. Tall and lean with shaggy blonde hair and tanned skin from being outside all of the time – like a true Dixon. Hunter liked to poke fun at him and call him surfer boy.

But most of the girls certainly didn't seem to mind Luke's surfer boy looks and it didn't even seem to matter much to them that he had been dating his girlfriend, Molly, since they were juniors in high school and most everyone knew that they were more than likely going to get married one of these days. It always made Abby purse her lips together to keep from giggling because when they walked around town, some girls made their staring at him so obvious but it always seemed as if Luke was completely clueless to it all.

On Monday morning, he decided to walk with Hunter and Abby to school and as they came to a stop outside in the school's front yard, she could already see more than one girl look over in their direction, looking over at Luke as if he was on display. But as usual, Luke didn't notice as his eyes scanned over the schoolyard and Abby knew what he was doing and who he was looking for. She reached over and took his hand in hers and Luke instantly turned his head, looking down at her, and when she smiled up at him, he was quick to return it with one of his own.

She was grateful she had two older brothers – especially two older brothers who looked out for her in the way in which Hunter and Luke did. She read enough times in her books about girls her age who were so annoyed with their older brothers who acted like their bodyguards but Abby had never shared that feeling with those characters. She loved her brothers and if she could, she'd protect them, too.

That morning, waking up, she had practically bounced out of bed, amazed that she had been able to get any sleep at all. Ever since her parents had talked with her the night before about home-schooling, she had been so excited at just the idea. Despite the way she felt nearly every day sitting in the classroom, she actually liked school. She liked her textbooks and watching Ms. Brandt as she wrote on the chalkboard and learning anything and everything that was taught to her. But that was what she liked. The learning. And if she could still do that without having to have kids laugh at her every day or say something to her that made her chest hurt, that was all she wanted.

Her mom would be a great teacher. She knew without a doubt. Beth admitted that she was nervous about teaching the science portions but she would do more research because there were home-schooling programs that could help her, too, and they would both learn together. She had even said that on nice days, maybe they could have class in the woods, and Abby had nearly cried at that because it all sounded so perfect.

In the meantime, she still had to go to school with the other kids but it was okay now because Abby knew that she wouldn't be going there anymore soon enough. And it made her steps feel light. She already felt free.

"Alright. You better get going," Luke said and she nodded up at him.

"Will you be here when school gets out?" She asked in sign.

He shook his head with his smile gone. "I have to get back. Class tomorrow morning."

Abby nodded and then stepped forward, her arms around his waist, and he hugged her with his arms around her shoulders. He kissed the top of her head and she stepped back, the smile still on her face, and after a moment, he was able to smile again, too. She took a moment to slip her shoes on and then with a little wave to him, she turned and headed towards the school's main steps. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Hunter and Luke saying goodbye to one another though they didn't hug. They just slapped their hands together and Luke said something and whatever it was, Hunter nodded.

Upstairs on the second level, she stopped at her locker. She spun the dial and popped the little metal door open. The hallways loud as it usually was – kids running around, laughing and shouting and fooling around before the first bell rang out. She turned her hearing aids down but she didn't completely turn them off; just enough for the noise around her not to be so overwhelming.

The first few years of her life, she had been able to hear but then slowly, it began fading but she hadn't said anything because she just had thought that it was all normal. She was able to hear murmurs of sounds and she taught herself how to read lips. When her parents figured it out and took her to see a doctor, they had felt guilty for not noticing sooner but Dr. S had told them that kids were incredibly adaptable – more adaptable than adults could be and hearing the world in murmurs just became Abby's normal.

Once they got her hearing aids, everything around her was thrown in upheaval. Everything around her was just too loud. Voices. Rain on the roof. Even a dog barking. She had cried and wailed and wanted to never wear them again but her parents insisted that she had to; that the world was a noisy place and they wanted her to be able to hear the noises around her. They promised her she would get used to it. And she did – eventually and for the most part. She still preferred the murmurs though. There weren't too many things in this world worth hearing unless they were sounds of the woods.

It took her a moment to realize that someone was standing next to her because he didn't say anything and she turned her head, seeing that it was Max Moraine. He stood there and was looking at her and Abby instantly turned her head away, her heart growing rapid in her chest. She had no idea what he could want so early in the morning.

She looked around, seeing if his friends were nearby, watching and waiting for whatever Max was going to say or do. She couldn't wait to get out of here. She wanted friends – a friend – but coming here every day and feeling sick to her stomach wasn't worth it.

"I'm sorry," Max then said, almost blurting it out, and Abby slowly moved her eyes back to him as if she couldn't quite believe that he had just apologized.

He was looking at her and he seemed genuine but she didn't understand how she could possibly believe him. He had his moments of being nice to her but he was just like the rest of them. They thought she was weird and made sure she never forgot what they thought of her; as if it was possible for her to forget.

Abby didn't say anything to him. What could she possibly say?

She took her books that she would need for morning classes and she closed the locker securely, spinning the dial and locking it once more. She turned and began to walk away but then, she felt a hand on her arm and she looked down at it as if no one had ever touched her arm before.

His touch was light. Gentle. He wasn't grabbing her or tightening his fingers. But he had made sure that she just didn't walk away.

She slowly turned her head and looked at him again. He looked absolutely anguished and that caused her to freeze in her spot because why would Max Moraine ever look like that? She didn't know what to do except furrow her brow as she looked at him. It was probably just because his lips was still swollen and bruised from Hunter's fist.

"I'm _really_ sorry, Abby," he said again.

And again, still having no idea what to say, she didn't say anything. But she did nod her head and it did look as if he wanted more but she wasn't going to give it to him. She began to take steps away and his hand fell to hang at his side and she went into their classroom without looking back at him.

She didn't know what that was. He seemed like he meant it but it could be just some part of an elaborate prank some of her classmates were wanting to play on her. She wouldn't put it past any of them.

In the classroom, Ms. Brandt was sitting at her desk and there was a cart beside her but whatever was on the cart was hidden beneath a white sheet. The teacher smiled as she came in.

"Good morning, Abby," she greeted warmly and Abby smiled in response.

She would miss Ms. Brandt but if she kept dating Ray Dixon, she'd come to family get-togethers; cookouts they had at the house in the fall during deer season.

She sat herself at her desk in the back and opened her binder to make sure that her Jellyfish report was still tucked in safe and had arrived safely. She wondered what her mom would teach her. There were plans and curriculum that home-schooled students had to follow and she wondered where they would start. And Beth had mentioned that there were gatherings for home-schooled kids to get together and go on field trips. Abby wondered if the other home-schooled kids would be nicer than the kids here.

The bell ran and Abby lifted her head, bringing herself to attention.

Ms. Brandt was standing at the front of the classroom with a girl standing next to her. She had red curly hair, freckles on her face and pale skin. She wore jeans with those fashionable rips in the knees and an over-sized black hooded sweatshirt with scuffed Converse sneakers on her feet. The sweatshirt looked as if maybe she had taken it from her dad, it so big and hanging far down her thighs. Abby looked at her curiously, having never seen the girl before and she knew what the others were thinking. She just had the aura around her. This girl was one of those cool girls.

"Alright, class, settle down. We have a new student joining us today," Ms. Brandt announced. Abby hardly paid attention now. The other girls in class would claim her. "This is Rebecca Conway and she and her family have just moved here from Tennessee."

"Becks," the girl corrected her and Ms. Brandt smiled with a nod.

"Sorry. Becks," she repeated. "There is a free desk open next to Abby. Abby, could you raise your hand, please, for Becks?"

Abby raised her hand just high enough for the girl to see and she came up the aisle, sliding into the desk next to Abby that had been empty since school began in August. Becks gave her a small smile and Abby did her best to return it.

Now that she was closer, Abby looked at her again. They were completely different. Becks in her ripped jeans and hooded sweatshirt with that crazy curly hair and Abby in her dress and ballet flats and her blonde hair. Abby looked away. She knew that Lydia Cross would probably talk with Becks after class. Lydia was the coolest girl in their grade.

"Now, everyone should have their animal reports. Please take those out and pass them forward," Ms. Brandt instructed and Abby took out her Jellyfish report and passed it forward, eager for Ms. Brandt to grade and return it. She think it turned out really well.

"And now, we are going to be doing something a little different this morning," Ms. Brandt continued once she had collected all of the papers and set them on her desk. "I visited the computer room and borrowed these from them for the day." With that, she pulled back the cloth, revealing what was on the cart. A pile of large headphones. Everyone peered at them curiously, wondering what was going on. "This is an experiment we're going to be conducting for the next hour. For the next hour, everyone is going to be wearing a pair of headphones so you can hear nothing but murmurs."

Abby caught on quicker than the others and her face instantly felt hot. She sank a little in her seat and stared at her books in front of her.

"Why?" Toby Grist asked what everyone else was thinking.

"Because I don't know how else to teach you how to be kind, courteous and productive members of society," Ms. Brandt informed them all. "A person who laughs at someone because they have a handicap is not a person this world needs."

They all understood now, too, and a few of them looked over to Abby but Abby was staring hard down at her books, her stomach knotted so tightly, it hurt. She knew Ms. Brandt was just trying to help but this was so bad. So, so bad.

She felt Becks slowly turn her head and look at Abby, too, but Abby didn't dare look at anyone and she blinked quickly to keep tears from forming. She wondered how soon her parents could pull her out of school. Not soon enough.

…

School couldn't get out fast enough that day. As soon as the final bell rang, Abby was one of the first out of the class, racing to her locker to put away her books and then racing down the stairs, not even stopping as Ray said hi to her as she passed. She burst from the doors in a sea of other kids and hurried down the steps, going towards the flagpole where she met Hunter every day so they could walk home together.

She leaned back against the metal pole behind her and took off her shoes before exhaling a heavy breath as if she had been holding it in all day. After they had all worn the headphones for an hour, seeing what it was like to be Abby Dixon and not able to hear, there had been no teasing towards her. No sly comments made in her direction. Actually, the entire day had passed with everyone absolutely ignoring her and she didn't know what was worse.

"Abby?"

Abby's eyes snapped open and she turned her head, forgetting that she hadn't turned her aids off as soon as she was outside. It was Becks, standing a few feet away, looking shy and already, after just one day of her in the class, Abby knew she wasn't shy. The girl had no problem raising her hand and answering if she knew what Ms. Brandt was asking. It didn't seem to bother her that she was the new kid in class and didn't seem to be taking any time, getting used to it.

Abby pushed herself from the pole but didn't say anything. She hugged her books tightly to her chest and looked to Becks, wondering what she wanted; wondering if the other kids had dared her to do something.

Becks didn't say anything. Her hands were pulling on the straps of her book-bag and then she brought them down. And then, she began to sign. Abby stared at her, her eyes widening as Becks' hands signed easily to her.

"I saw your Emily Dickinson book on your desk. I love her, too," Becks said.

Abby didn't say anything; just blinked at her.

"What's your favorite?" Becks continued. " _I'm Nobody. Who are you?_ That's my favorite. My mom says it's because of my age that I love it so much."

She was quiet then, her hands pausing in the air before dropping down, hanging awkwardly for a moment before she pulled at the straps of her book-bag again.

Abby still wasn't sure. A girl who was cool like Becks didn't come up and talk to her. She just didn't. No one talked to her. Even if she wasn't deaf, they wouldn't. She was the feral girl in their town and kids laughed that she would give them rabies. Becks was new and didn't know that but by tomorrow, she would know. Lydia or Max would probably pull her aside and tell her to stay away from Abby Dixon and she would because she would want to fit in with everyone else. Who didn't want to fit in?

Becks moved her hands again then. "I really like your dress."

Abby looked down to the dress she was wearing. It was her favorite. White and lace with a torn hem, hanging to her knees. Her mom had found it, saying it must have belonged to someone who had worn it to their wedding. Abby had always wondered about that. Even if the woman wasn't married anymore, Abby didn't know why she would have given up this dress. It was worn and old but beautiful. Abby would never give it away to be sold and worn by someone else.

"It drives my mom crazy," Becks continued. "The way I dress. She says I need to dress like a young lady and not like a bum."

"I love the way you're dressed," Abby signed back to her quickly. Becks instantly smiled. Abby took a deep breath and continued. "And that's my favorite poem of hers, too."

She wondered what it would be like tomorrow – after the other kids talked to her. But for now, it was nice. Having someone in her class talk to her and not just talk to her but _sign_ to her. She wondered how Becks knew how to sign and do it so well. Abby decided that she would revel in it for as long as she could. For the first time, to one of her classmates, she wasn't a freak. Abby admitted that it was a warm, good feeling and maybe it was even something she could get used to.

…

When Beth was happy, everyone knew it. Her smile was bright and constant on her face and she hummed a little to herself and her steps were light as if she was dancing. Even her dad was happy though with Daryl, it was never as obvious as it was with his wife but to his family, it was always known when he was in a good mood. He was relaxed and his lips twitched in smiles a little easier and more often and there was never a crease between his eyebrows.

Hunter was the one to ask Becks if she wanted to come with them for dinner and Becks lived in town and had a cellphone and she called her parents, asking for permission. She then walked home with them, looking around as they walked further out into the country – though they were still in town limits – and seemed amazed at how open the space was around them.

Daryl was in the garage, as usual. Once his carpentry business expanded, the little shed in the back didn't provide enough space for him and he moved his work area into the garage. He was at his buzz saw and when he saw them coming up the drive, he stopped the machine and lifted his protective eye glasses to the top of his head.

"Hey. How was school?" He asked as he always did.

Hunter looked to Abby for her to answer.

"This is Becks," Abby signed. "She's new and she's in my class. Can she stay for dinner?"

Daryl seemed momentarily confused. Abby had never brought someone home from school; definitely not one of her classmates. But he was quick to recover.

"Course she can," he answered, looking to the other girl, and Becks smiled at him.

"Thank you, Mr. Dixon," she said to him.

He watched as the two girls headed towards the front porch, going inside, as Hunter went to join his dad in the garage. Inside, Abby led Becks down the hallway as Becks looked around the house in amazement. Hunter told her all about the house on the walk from school; how it had been abandoned for years and falling down around them and Daryl had worked on it for months, rebuilding the whole thing.

In the kitchen, Abby saw Beth at the stove, stirring something in a pot and she wasn't sure why but she felt her stomach knot nervously. She had never brought someone over and she realized she wasn't too sure what to do. Would they stay down here or would they go up to her bedroom? What would they do up there? What would they talk about? Maybe she could show Becks all of her books. Maybe Becks would like to see that. Abby couldn't think of anything else to show her.

Beth turned and saw the girls standing in the doorway. "Hi!" Beth smiled instantly. "Hello," she then said to Becks.

"Hi, Mrs. Dixon. I'm Becks," Becks greeted. "I'm in Abby's class."

"Becks is over for dinner. Is that okay if she stays?" Abby signed.

And like Daryl outside, Abby saw the surprise in her mom's eyes but like Daryl, Beth recovered quickly and the smile, once again, was across her face.

"Of course it is," Beth said with a quick nod. "It's so nice to meet you, Becks. Your family was in church yesterday. Father Gabriel introduced you. Welcome to town."

"Thank you," Becks smiled in reply.

"Well, we're not having anything fancy tonight. Just tuna casserole and it will be ready in about an hour. Abby, you should take Becks upstairs and show her your room," Beth then suggested.

Abby was so grateful to her mom in that moment; Beth knowing that Abby had never had anyone over and she had absolutely no idea what to do.

Abby nodded quickly and Beth smiled.

"Thank you, Mrs. Dixon," Becks smiled, too, before following Abby out of the kitchen.

At the dining room table, the family sat down to eat tuna casserole, both Daryl and Beth smiling as if no one better than Becks had ever sat at their table before, and Beth asked Becks a few questions – not interrogating her but wanting to get to know her better. In Becks' old school in Tennessee, kids were able to learn Spanish, French or sign language. Becks chose sign language because not that many other kids were taking it.

"Just seemed like it would be more useful to me. And it turned out I was right," Becks then smiled happily, looking at Abby, and Abby smiled a little shyly in return. "I can't believe there are so many jerks at that school," she then stated. "Thank God I met Abby. She seems like she's the only normal one in our class."

Abby had been eating a bite of her tuna casserole and her head snapped up at that comment, looking to Becks to see if she was telling a joke. But Becks was eating her casserole and seemed perfectly serious.

Normal? No one in class had ever called her normal before.

She felt an overwhelming rush up the back of her throat and she quickly lowered her eyes to her plate once more, not wanting anyone to see that she was on the verge of tears. Normal. There was a girl sitting next to her who thought she was just like her. She felt her lips twitching upwards.

"Becks," Daryl then said in his gruff voice; gruff but kind. "You're welcome back here anytime you wanna come."

…

End.

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